Sun Burned and Exhausted.... But Lovin It!

So I'm back from Cedar Point, and it was pretty fun all things considered. I'm noticeably pinker than when I left and exhausted from all the walking and yelling and everything to do there!  I got there, and it was over 90 degrees, which made it near unbearable to be out in the open, but through lots of water and strategic standing under shady spots, we survived. I went on the Disaster Transport, an interesting roller coaster built all indoors, amongst other rides. Lines were HUGE all day so we didn't get to go on everything we wanted, but we still had fun. And soon into the day, it stormed really bad. My fiancee didn't want to stay outside in the thunderstorm, but my friends and I loved it. We waited out the first storm (yes I said first for a reason) in the arcade, which is pretty impressive. Not Gameworks big, but it was pretty large. I'm an old pro at Dance Dance Revolution, and they had SuperNova there, so I had to give it a go. And then between my friend and myself, we won about 300 tickets, which we ended up giving to a nice kid... mostly cuz they didn't have any candy! lol.  No one is too old for video games and candy. Period.
     So after the rain subsided, we headed back out thinking that the crowd would have diminished. Not so much. So we walked around, hit up another ride or two, and then decided it was a good time to hit the water rides. We decided on Snake River Falls first, as there is NO WAY possible to get out of that one without being drenched to the bone. Opened in 1993, Snake River Falls (see pic)  was deemed the tallest and steepest water ride in the world at that time. Currently the tallest and steepest water ride goes to Perilous Plunge, at 115 ft, and an angle of descent at 75°, just 15° short of straight vertical and is located at Knott's Berry Farm in California, also owned by the same company as Cedar Point.

      Its a fairly simple ride, but it attracts thousands of guests each season. Each boat can carry roughly 12-16 ppl, and as you can see, after the ride, you can get off, and stand on the bridge where the boat makes it's splashdown. So if you didn't get enough water the first time, there's always another chance.
     As we get off this ride, it starts absolutely pouring, just short of torrential. At this point, its already 8:00, so we decide to call it a day. So, being soaked already, we just leave our bathing suits on and just walk in the rain, enjoying stomping in puddles and water fun we hadn't indulged in since younger times. And we weren't the only ones. It seemed as the though the whole park had been turned into little kids again. People jumping in puddles, splashing each other, just generally having a good time. Apparently, it takes much more than a little rain to ruin the spirit there.  So that was fun...  Well, other than that, the weekend was uneventful, save for lots of business at the restaurant today. So. Onto......

What's Stuck In My Head?!?
     I know, deviating from the norm... Scaaaary! But hey, embrace the random and enjoy all of life's curveballs, even the small ones. lol.  
     So, today's song is a little heavy--er, but its been stuck in my head all day long, and I gotta get it out somehow.  So without further ado.... Drumroll....
      Psychosocial by Slipknot off of the album, All Hope Is Gone.  Now, if you don't like Slipknot because they're too heavy, or you don't like the lyrics, that's your prerogative, and you can skip the rest of this blog if you want. BUT! I encourage everyone to at least give this song at least 1 listen if you haven't heard it before. And if you can't decide if you like it, listen to it one more time. It's a pretty popular song from them, and most Slipknot fans should know it. Now, this song has a lot of lyrics that are hard to understand because he does the "death-growling" voice for the lyrics between choruses. But the chorus has a nice melody to it, and believe it or not, Slipknot's singer really does have a nice voice. This chorus always sticks with me, after I've listened to it, while I'm listening to it, and even now, when I'm just talking about it. The video can be scary for some of you who aren't used to some of this type of stuff, so if this is your first step into the genre, you can always just hit play on the movie below and not watch it. But in my opinion, Slipknot has a very clean sound in most of this song especially between the drums and guitar in the beginning when they hit faster notes together. In some bands, you'll hear them start to get off beat from each other just the slightest hair, but this sounds pretty nice to me. And I constantly rave about the chorus, because I really like everything about it. The lyrics, the melody, and his voice for sure. But don't take my opinion. Form your own. Enjoy.

Cedar Point

   Hi all. So tomorrow, a bunch of friends/coworkers and I are going to spend the entire day at Cedar Point, so naturally, I won't be posting anything tomorrow, because I'll be too busy getting sunburned, looking at women in swimsuits (namely, my fiancee. But others too! lol), and riding lots and lots of rides... or mainly standing in line for lots and lots of rides.
     For those of you who have no idea what Cedar Point is, it is one of the largest amusement parks in the world. One of them, anyway.

Here's a view from across the lake:

And here's an aerial view:

Fun facts about Cedar Point:

1. Its in Sandusky, Ohio, and it's located on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie. 
2. At 75 rides, it's has more rides than any other amusement park. 
3. It's been voted best amusement park in the world for the past 13 yrs by Amusement Today. 
4. It has 17 roller coasters, more than any other park out there. 
5. Its most recent coaster, built in 2007, is called The Maverick. It's not the fastest, nor the tallest ride there, but it is arguably one of the best. The first drop is 95 degrees... for those of you who don't know, that's more than vertical, you actually dip in before coming vertical again. Preeetty intense.
6. This year, 2011, they unveiled their brand-new ride, Windseeker, which is like the chain swing ride, where you sit in a swing and it twirls you around gently, except its 301 FEET IN THE AIR. Aaand, it twirls you at about 30 mph. Pretty decent clip.

     So yeah. My buddy and I are heading out tonight to sleep at my parents' place, because we don't want to have to get up by 530 in get there when it opens. They only live about 30 min away. Much better.  So that's why I'm typin this earlier in the day than usual. Maybe I'll put up a pic of our trip. If I feel like it.

Umm, in other news, for those of you who might actually pay attention to some of this, since my 360 is going in for repairs, I'm forced to find other game outlets, and so far, its been Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. I gotta say, I was very skeptical of the 3DS when it first debuted, but as my DSLite had just broken, I figured, the worst that would happen is I would leave the 3D feature off. But I'll admit, I was genuinely shocked when I put in OoT3D. Very nicely remastered. Everything the way I remembered it, and more. And the 3D is very nice. The only downside, is that you have to have the 3DS situated at a certain distance from you, or you'll be seeing double. And you have to look directly at it, or you'll see double. Because the way the 3D system works, is instead of overlapping the same image and having you wear glasses to combine the image to give a 3D effect, the screen sends light to each eye individually, so that when your eyes perceive it, your brain interprets it as 3D. But, when only one eye is getting the light properly, it messes up the effect.


Tl;dr - 3DS is nice, just make sure you're using it properly.

Now for my only regular segment on this blog:

What I'm Listening to Right Now!!
     Today's is a great song: Voodoo by Godsmack off their self-titled album. Now, if you're more familiar with recent Godsmack, like their recent hit, Crying Like A Bitch or anything else off of their album, The Oracle, you'll likely not recognize this song as them. This is a much more... idk, mellow beat. Its a very vocal piece, and most of the instrumentals are dominated by the bass, and most of the drum beat is played on the toms. I instantly fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, and I still love listening to it, when I just wanna chill out and listen to some grooves. There's no real big guitar solo, or drum solo, or anything like that. Its kind of hard to describe the whole experience, so you should probably just listen to it... maybe this is a good time to start including the music video in my posts... Check it out. Enjoy.

What do you think? Like? No? Whatever. I do. So, I'll be taking the rest of the day off and tomorrow as well, so I'll be back Sunday, probably more sunburned and sore than ever before.